Jazz Articles
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Lynne Arriale Trio: Being Human
by Pierre Giroux
In the album Being Human, the Lynne Arriale Trio has crafted a release that delves into many dimensions of our shared humanity. Accompanied by the rhythmic backbone of bassist Alon Near and the pulsating energy of drummer Lukasz Zyta, the trio embarks on an exhilarating sonic journey. A suite of ten original compositions is the frame on which Arriale hangs her musical narrative. Many of the tracks are dedicated to those who have inspired her life, ...
read moreLynne Arriale: Being Human
by Doug Collette
It is worth (re)stating what a balm to the soul is good jazz music. Still, on her seventeenth album as a leader, pianist/composer Lynne Arriale expounds upon that verity with bassist Alon Near and drummer Lukasz Zyta, all the while refraining from overstatement. In so doing, Arriale and company extend the conscious decision to emphasize empathy as captured on her previous album, The Lights Are Always On (Challenge Records, 2022). A rush of rippling piano at the outset ...
read moreLynne Arriale: Being Human
by Mike Jurkovic
In need of some serious uplift? Try Being Human, a sure high water mark for pianist/composer Lynne Arriale. Locked into that too often wayward network of connections between heart, brain and her vividly emotive lyricism, Arriale's seventeenth artistic statement serves as a conduit to our shared hopes, dreams, thoughts, prayers, and best wishes for a better world. Lithesome and balletic, with a feminine mystique and facility that's essential yet hard to define, Being Human throws a warm light ...
read moreJohn Beasley, Jose Gola & Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez: El Trio Live in Italy
by Glenn Astarita
El Trio Live in Italy features the impressive line-up of Grammy Award-winner John Beasley on keyboards and synthesizers, José Gola on electric bass, and Horacio “El Negro" Hernandez on drums. Described as a “dream threesome" of renowned musicians, this album is a product of their summer tour of Italy in 2022. The album's essence is a journey of three friends allowing the music to guide them. All three artists have a rich history, having toured with the maestro of Afro-Cuban ...
read moreEnrico Pieranunzi & Bert Joris: Chet Remembered
by Chris May
Chet Remembered is the second disc the pianist Enrico Pieranunzi has recorded with a big band in as many years. Both are what used to be called “concept albums." 2022's offering, Blues & Bach (Challenge), was made with the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, and celebrated the compositions of John Lewis, mainly those Lewis recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet. It is a lovely disc. Lovely, too, is Chet Remembered, made with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, conducted by ...
read moreEnrico Pieranunzi Trio & Orchestra: Blues & Bach: The Music Of John Lewis
by Chris May
If the work of any jazz composer lends itself to elegant reframing, as opposed to crass sweetening, by a chamber orchestra, it is that of John Lewis, co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Lewis' ambition, most often metaphorically realised but sometimes literally so, was to achieve a synthesis of blues and Bach. His blends were mostly successful and only occasionally, in self-conscious forays into “third stream" music, did his innate vibrancy become subsumed in arid academia. Lewis ...
read moreGilles Grethen Quartet & Strings: State of Mind
by Jerome Wilson
The concept of a jazz group backed by a string ensemble is nothing new. However, this set from the pan-European Gilles Grethen quartet is a particularly lovely example of the combination. Guitarist Grethen, from Luxembourg, leads a group which features trumpet, bass, and drums, and is accompanied on this album by an eleven-piece string ensemble. The music he wrote for the project seamlessly integrates the quartet and string elements, contrasting moods of serenity and subtle tension. “Change" moves ...
read moreMaria Mendes: Saudade, Colours of Love
by Richard J Salvucci
Every language has words that defy translation. Take “saudade" in Portuguese or Galician. Or “fado." Go to a standard dictionary, and “saudade" appears as “nostalgia" or “longing." In reality, a native speaker will tell you “saudade" means a kind of indefinable melancholy for people, places or things that may only exist in the imagination, and “fantasy" will not even come close. “Fado" is an art form, defined as a mournful or fatalistic Portuguese folk song. Perhaps “flamenco" is familiar, but ...
read moreJussi Reijonen: Three Seconds | Kolme Toista
by Karl Ackermann
East/West jazz fusion has a long presence on the U.S. jazz scene and that foothold has been growing in the 2000s. Composer/guitarist/oud player Jussi Reijonen is uniquely qualified to bridge musical cultures. Nordic by birth, he has lived in the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S., absorbing native music at each stop. Reijonen's solo debut, Un (Self Produced, 2012), paved the way for Three Seconds | Kolme Toista. The acclaimed debut album incorporated global influences but in a melodic haze. ...
read moreEric Vloeimans & Will Holshouser: Two For The Road-
by Pierre Giroux
The trumpet and the accordion may seem like an incompatible musical combination, and perhaps that may be so, except in the hands of Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and American accordionist Will Holshouser. Their dynamic and demonstrative interaction is on full display in this live concert recorded during a tour of the Netherlands in 2021 and is appropriately entitled Two For The Road. In this twelve track concert, nine of the compositions come from the pen of ...
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